BOMB Episode 102: "S.W.A.K. (Sealed With a Kiss)" (SPOILERS!)

Here are my reactions to Episode 102 of OUTLANDER: BLOOD OF MY BLOOD, titled "S.W.A.K. (Sealed With a Kiss)". Unlike my OUTLANDER episode recaps, I will not be doing detailed scene-by-scene recaps for BLOOD OF MY BLOOD. What follows are my general reactions to the episode.

*** SPOILER WARNING!! ***

There are SPOILERS below! If you don't want to know yet, stop reading now.

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I found this episode rather disappointing, compared to my very positive reaction to Episode 101. It's a very grim episode, with too many coincidences and parallels to Claire's story for my liking.

This exchange toward the end of the episode sums up my feelings toward Henry and Julia pretty well.

Henry to Malcolm - "You don't like me much do you?"
Malcolm - "Dinna ken ye well enough to have formed an opinion."

We don't really get to know the characters very well before they time-travel. We know almost nothing about Henry's background, except for his WWI experiences -- as if he has no life or existence prior to the War -- so I had no idea he was a solicitor by profession until quite late in the episode. Julia, likewise, appears to have little or no personal life beyond her letters to Henry.

I did like some parts of this episode. I thought the WWI scenes were riveting and well done. In the scene where the commander tells Henry, "I would be quite within my rights to shoot you," I thought, you can't do that! If you shoot Henry before Claire is born, the whole OUTLANDER series goes POOF, just like that! <g> (This was the only place I laughed in the whole episode.)

Julia writes, "I know what it is to feel alone and to ask why." I thought, No, you don't, but you will before this episode is over, I'm sure!

"Have you heard from your brother Lamb?" - I smiled at that reference to Claire's beloved Uncle Lamb, aka Quentin Lambert Beauchamp, who was an archaeologist.

So Julia "adores Scotland", seemingly every bit as fascinated by All Things Scottish as many OUTLANDER fans. <g> I suppose that explains why they went to Scotland on holiday in Episode 101.

I liked the concept of the letters, but I didn't really care for Julia's writing style. It was hard for me to imagine why Henry fell in love with her just from the things she said in those few letters.

So Henry just happens to show up at the exact moment when Julia walks by? That was awfully contrived.

I thought the sex scene was just OK. We don't really know these two at all, beyond their letters and Henry's war experiences.

Henry has PTSD and wakes up screaming, more than Jamie ever did after Wentworth. Julia calms him by quoting from her letters, of all things, as though she can't actually speak to him directly, although he's right there beside her. I thought that was really odd.

The sequence where Julia wakes at Craigh na Dun was FAR too reminiscent of Claire's first trip through the stones. But I liked Julia leaving a "note" for Henry by scraping "S.W.A.K." on a rock. That was a good idea!

On the other hand, Julia seems out of her depth from the moment she arrives at Castle Leathers. She promptly finds herself the "property" of Lord Lovat, and more or less turns into Cinderella. After the failure of her single escape attempt, she seems to resign herself to being trapped there. Unlike Henry, she doesn't (I think) make any attempt to get word out to locate Henry. He'll have to find her, somehow.

Brian takes a strapping meant for Julia. The parallel to Jamie and Laoghaire in OUTLANDER is VERY obvious!

“So you did help that girl Laoghaire because you felt sorry for her,” I said, when I had recovered my composure. “You knew what it was like.”

(From OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 22, "Reckonings". Copyright © 1991 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

If I were Julia, I'd seek out Brian to see if he can help her get word to Henry, since he's the only one who seems even slightly sympathetic to her plight.

Meanwhile, Henry is having difficulties of his own. He encounters a group of clansmen, accidentally gets in the middle of clan business (the details of this were very confusing to me) and is saved by Malcolm Grant. Henry is taken to Bowmont House, seat of Clan Grant. We learn that Henry is a solicitor. He tells the clan chief (Isaac Grant) that his trusted aide has been "misrepresenting" him. Arch Bug takes the man out and beats him. Henry is offered the aide's job. (That was quick, but on the other hand, Claire became the healer at Castle Leoch about as quickly.)

My take on this is that Henry is both intelligent and resourceful, able to size up a situation very quickly and turn it to his advantage. I hope we see more of that in future episodes.

One month later, we've caught up with the timeline from last week's episode. Ned Gowan apologizes to Henry (whom we met but I didn't recognize in the first episode) for Dougal's behavior during the fight. Ned Gowan offers Ellen to Malcolm Grant as a means to ally the two clans, but the Grants refuse.

"The laird wants Dougal MacKenzie's head, not his sister's hand." - good line.

Ned offers help in searching for Henry's lost love in return for bringing the proposal to the Grants.

Finally, Julia and Henry write letters to one another, vowing to find a way back to one another, somehow.

It's early yet, but I'm still not really invested in these characters. I do hope for Julia's sake that she evades Lord Lovat's advances long enough for her pregnancy to advance to the point where he'll lose interest in her. Henry, by contrast, seems to be doing amazingly well for himself! I'm not concerned that he's in any danger whatsoever at this point, as long as he keeps doing the Grants' bidding, so I have less reason to care what happens to him.

Look here for my reactions to BLOOD OF MY BLOOD Episode 101, and please come back next week for more!